Are all names of the Absolute synonymous?
Abstract
In one way different names of the Absolute may be synonymous,and in another way not synonymous. Using Frege's terminology, words may have the same reference but different "senses." Just as "Morning Star" and "Evening Star" are names of the same object, and in that mode have the same meaning, they have
different "senses"(intensions, connotations, and so forth) and in that mode have differing meanings. Assuming that one can adequately understand the notion of synonymity in the extensional mode, to begin with, one might argue that all such names of the Absolute are synonymous, that is to say, all such names are
intersubstitutable, salva veritate. In the intensional mode, the names might very
well not be intersubstitutable, and hence not synonymous; in this intensional mode, however, it is doubtful whether one could come up with any acceptable criterion of synonymity that is, no two words would, or could, be synonymous. Whether, in fact, all names of the Absolute are names of some one thing is, of
course, a factual question, just as the identity of the Evening Star and the Morning Star is an empirical fact.
Part of
Citation
Philosophy East and West Vol. 33, No. 3 (Jul., 1983), pp. 285-293